An entirely competetent text. Agudelo is thoughtful and often clever and has smooth, fluid poems. The poems of The Bosses are both personal and socialAn entirely competetent text. Agudelo is thoughtful and often clever and has smooth, fluid poems. The poems of The Bosses are both personal and social, thinking of his duaghter and her OCD alongside meditaions on the state of work in America. Unfortuneately, I felt like a lot of Agudelo's poems (especially those that concerned themselves directly with work) were sort of pale shadows of Phillip Levine's verse, especially the poems inWhat Work Is. Obviously, you might find them to be more illuminating or engaging, especially if you have a fondness for the conversational and straightforward in your verse. "The Birth of History" and "No Fucking Rome" were probably my favorite poems; they had the most sparkle and fascination for me and they fit into the arc of the book well. I would definitely hunt up poems by Agudelo before buying the book, see if anything makes a major impact....more
I finished this probably over a year ago? I haven't really used goodreads in the last year--maybe I'll start up again soon? But! this one is super funI finished this probably over a year ago? I haven't really used goodreads in the last year--maybe I'll start up again soon? But! this one is super fun--funny and wise and just what you want from a supernatural advice column....more
A truly phenomenal study of four Modern poets and how gossip suffuses their poetics on the level of both content and form. Bennett provides phenomenalA truly phenomenal study of four Modern poets and how gossip suffuses their poetics on the level of both content and form. Bennett provides phenomenal and historically-situated close readings of Gertrude Stein, Langston Hughes, Frank O'Hara, and James Merrill. His argument reads the valoration of gossip as an epistemological mode and as a communicative one that is deeply bound up with queerness and its mode of engaging with the world. Bennet doesn't situtate this book as the be-all and end-all of gossip in American poetry so much as a jumping-off point for reading each of these authors through gossip as well as producing a compelling theoretical argument for the connection between gossip and lyric and the continued relevance of lyric and its gossipy reimagination.
Bennett's prose is accessible and stylish. He's not afraid to be witty and to have fun with his argumentation, but his wit never escapes into the realm of confusion and obfuscation. His citations are rich (and his endnotes useful) but he always explains the primary takeaway of the theorists he is using clearly and effectively without seeming condescending or allowing his citations to form a barrier to his own argument. A truly phenomenal work of criticsm. Highly recommended....more
So I actually finished this ages ago and have been putting off writing the review because I kept feeling like a whole essay was in me and I was waitinSo I actually finished this ages ago and have been putting off writing the review because I kept feeling like a whole essay was in me and I was waiting for it to write itself. But it didn't, so here I am. The Once and Future King does some really astonishing stuff with the idea of nostalgia--it is constantly producing its version of Arthur's England as so much better than White's own and as quaint, unfinished, untenable (and as not something you would want to be tenable anyway). In the first section, The Sword in the Stone, (originally published separately as were all parts other than the final one The Candle in the Wind) this is done mostly through a long series of humorous anachronisms--references to White's present for comparison or explanation--and a tone of indulgence. White's narration is fond of the subject matter, but also finds it charmingly childish/primitive (one of the more troubling moves of the novel, as the figure of the primitive as child or Noble Savage crops up a shocking amount, both applied to non-white peoples as a point of comparison and to the past of the British Isles themselves). While this does persist, (so that the middle two sections--especially the second, The Queen of Air and Darkness give the impression of being written with two contradictory tones at once, which is also a nostalgic move in its way. The fondness, more than anything, persists in the moments of levity.) the novel gets increasingly dark, increasingly tragic, as it hurtles towards Arthur's death and the end of the Round Table. White's take on the fall of the round table is interesting, though not my favorite moral reading. He locates the fall first in Arthur's seduction of Morgause (and the incestuous birth of Mordred) and then in the affair between Lancelot and Guenever. Notably, this is not presented as a matter of "moral decay" exactly--the censure is not one that boiled down neatly to "loose women produce ruin" or "preserve the sanctity of the family" or anything like that. Instead it casts the whole thing in a Greek-tragic sense as inevitable, punishment almost without fault, or something that looks like what is being punished as an effect--almost "the inevitable failure of ideals necessarily produces Doomed Romance." Which is not exactly a lesson I want to take from my reading, but the extent to which White's novel wants you to take an extractable lesson is also unclear. For all that explanations are offered, they are presented as almsot as fragile as Arthur's vision of England itself--this mysterious conservative push towards endurance while also endlessly aware that the old way was not always right, that it got itself wrong in ways that a return to it would only exacerbate. White does not want to go back. Nor does this novel want to replicate the past. Instead, it produces nostalgia at every turn in something that feels almost like a desperate bid to salvage whatever is worth salvaging. The past is gone and maybe never was (cheekily hinted at by the repeated citation of Malory as if he were a historical source and not a literary one) but The Once and Future King asks if there is something worth taking from that past. Its racism and sexism make it a difficult read, and one I wouldn't recommend lightly. But they also force us to turn to its question. This book is not innocent. It is not infallible. It is often wrong, both incorrect and potentially harmful. What does it mean to have nostalgia be produced by such a text? What does it mean for elements of its reimagining of the legend of Arthur--a story that circulates as legend and which White trades on and subordinates his novelistic work to--have become part of common representations of the story? Is there a way to salvage White's text from itself, to use it to ask questions about the production of the past and our relation to it? I think there must be. And I think that there are plenty of reasons one might be unwilling to take up that task....more
I really enjoyed Lyric Shame. It was an excellent historical overview of the lyric/anti-lyric arguments that motivated a lot of Language poetry's critI really enjoyed Lyric Shame. It was an excellent historical overview of the lyric/anti-lyric arguments that motivated a lot of Language poetry's critique as well as a compelling argument that the lyric/anti-lyric framework is an inaccurate frame that reifys the "lyric-reading" strategies advocated by the New Critics and which the Langauge poets objected to so strongly. The thoretical explanation of her framing in terms of shame is laid out clearly and effectively in the introduction and then her readings of the poets are engaging and fit nicely with her historical/theoretical framing. I did think her fourth chapter was a little difficult to follow--attempting to cover too many different poets too quickly for me, especially since I am not intimately familiar with the work of any of them, though I have read poems by all of the people she discussed in the chapter. Her readings of Elizabeth Bishop and Bernadette Mayer's work really made me want to read the pieces she's focusing on (especially with the Mayer, who I am not really familiar with, but who White presents as navigating the tension between avant-garde anti-lyric writing and "lyric" "personal" writing not only effectively and intentionally but with an almost mind-boggling degree of conscious concientiousness). Her reading of Sexton's work was also convincing and enjoyable, but I haven't had great luck with Sexton, personally, though I agree with her that Sexton's writing is much more than the uncritical and artless revelation of the self that it is often maligned as. (I also have not had good luck with Berryman or Lowell , have a mixed relationship with Snodgrass, and a positive-but-punctuated-with-disinterest-and-disappointment one with Plath so there's something particular about the so-called "Confessional" that doesn't always sit well with me that is not its "lyric" "personalness"). As such, she didn't actually change my mind on Sexton though I think the reading is admirable and points out some interesting aspects of her work. All in all, a compelling work in poetics, weaving its historical and historicist analysis of poetic manifestos and reading practices with convincing close readings of the poems....more
I'm a bit late to the party on Refuse (by which I mean I should have bought a copy when he came to read at my college a couple years ago) but boy am II'm a bit late to the party on Refuse (by which I mean I should have bought a copy when he came to read at my college a couple years ago) but boy am I glad I finally got around to reading it. Randall's work straddles the line between experiment and revelation gorgeously, playing effectively and freely with form while alway being grounded in a poetic transformation of experience, feeling, sound, and movement. (I will say that there's a part of me that wants to know what joyful, ecstatic, poems look like as they are few and far between in this collection, but it draws you in well with its difficult material anyway.) The poems are smart but never precious, raw but never unfinished, just brimming with lyrical force. Knowing he studied with Amiee Nezhukumatathil and Nathalie Anderson, I think I can see their hands, but his voice is uniquely his own, singing and strong.
My favorite poems included all the poems entitled "Palinopsia," "Pregame Prayer with Complete Citations," "Icarus," "A Thousand Cardinals," "This Land is Where We Buried Everything that Came Before You: African American Hitory and Concepts of Ownership in Early Elementary Education," "The Spool Who Sat by the Once Bombed City: Psychological Explorations of Ancestral Memory," and "Portrait of My Father as Sysiphus." As might be clear just from the titles, these are intimate without seeming to place his pain on display--we are not permitted to be voyeurs, instead we are let in or not entirely on his terms. A brilliant book. Highly recommended....more
A fitting "conclusion" to the series. Corwin's story is finished--and I think very satisfyingly so. There are another five books which I haven't read A fitting "conclusion" to the series. Corwin's story is finished--and I think very satisfyingly so. There are another five books which I haven't read which focus on (view spoiler)[Merlin, Corwin's son but there was enough of a delay betweeen the publication of this novel and the publication of the sixth that when combined with the shift in protagonist, I think of them as a pair of quintets, rather than a single ten-book series. Lots of fun; I definitely recommend the series for anyone with a fondness for that sort of sword and sorcery adventure. (hide spoiler)]...more
Another fitting installment--maintaining the fast pace, cavelier tone, and serious consideration of the world and characters. By this point we've beenAnother fitting installment--maintaining the fast pace, cavelier tone, and serious consideration of the world and characters. By this point we've been with Corwin long enough (and I think he's grown enough) that we can see him as a much better person than he started, though he's still far from flawless. But I rather like that--the way Zelazny insists on the imperfections of our protagonist and I at least don't think he just accepts them as given....more
The plot *really* picks up and starts heading in a somewhat new direction in this one. The series becomes more concerned with the already important meThe plot *really* picks up and starts heading in a somewhat new direction in this one. The series becomes more concerned with the already important metaphysics and also more personal rather than the throne-battle it seemed in the first novel. I actually rather like the shift--it's a nice move and I find it makes for a natural followup for to the opening of the series....more
Lovely continuation of the series. Corwin starts becoming more likeable as the series goes on (growth, you know) though he isn't quite there yet here.Lovely continuation of the series. Corwin starts becoming more likeable as the series goes on (growth, you know) though he isn't quite there yet here. ...more
It's so 1970s (makes sense as it appeared in 70 and then the series proceeds throughout the decade for five books) and it's just a gloriously fun sworIt's so 1970s (makes sense as it appeared in 70 and then the series proceeds throughout the decade for five books) and it's just a gloriously fun sword-and-sorcery romp. I acually finished it weeks ago and have been too busy to review it (and the rest of the series) so these will be on the short side. Nine Princes in Amber does a fantastic job setting up the world of the series, providing just enough info to keep us on our toes. I can't say that it's entirely unproblematic (Corwin is sort of sexist and there are assorted uncomfortable things peppered about) but I don't think the novel is in favor of anything remarkable politically bad. Instead it focuses on character and the relationship to power in a really interesting and engaging way. Zelazny's prose is readable and fast-paced. The tone is a bit odd--Corwin moves between narrating in a sort of faux-medieval voice and one right out of 20th century American, but there are good diegetic reasons for that, so it just adds to the charm....more
Absolutely phenomenal, gorgeously written. Hartman seamlessly weaves a readable narrative history of the Atlantic slave trade in West Africa with an aAbsolutely phenomenal, gorgeously written. Hartman seamlessly weaves a readable narrative history of the Atlantic slave trade in West Africa with an account of her trip to Ghana to do research on the same. She interrogates the relationship between Africa and African-Americans, between American and African forms of slavery, between the rhetorics and logics of rememberance and memorialization and mourning and forgetting and hiding, between the economic and the personal both in the past and the present. Hartman is so smart and her brilliance shines through on every page, without ever making the reader feel stupid. Each move is clearly signposted and easy to follow so that you're always thinking "I never thought of that" without ever thinking "I don't understand how she got there." The book is meticulously researched and Hartman's notes are useful and accessible, pointing us to a vast academic bibliography on slavery and its history and afterlife, but her interest is not in overwhelming her readers with the breadth of her reading. Instead, Lose Your Mother showcases the depth of Hartman's thought, including bitter (if occasionally humorous) critiques of capital and racism, alongside serious consideration of what it means to travel to the site of an atrocity, to build a museum there, to be dispossessed, to "return," to be unable to return. Hartman takes the burden of interpretation very seriously and thinks through its possibilites with care and power at every turn. I'll be thinking about this book for a long time to come....more
A fun and exciting read for kids! I always liked Rodda's The Key to Rondo which I read back when I was in elementary school, so I was excited to finalA fun and exciting read for kids! I always liked Rodda's The Key to Rondo which I read back when I was in elementary school, so I was excited to finally get around to reading this sequel! (I've owned it for like five years.) And it didn't disappoint. Lighthearted and fast-paced, it picked up where Key left off and made itself really very fun without abandoning the heart of the previous story (friendship, valuing the specifcity of the people around you, etc.) There isn't much to say about the prose; it's adequate, which is really I need from something like this--even great kidlit is usually not read for the prose so much as for the fun of it. In terms of the actual plot, I can't say anything at all without giving away the whole plot of Key, but I will say it was just the right amount of escalation for a sequel. Lots of fun, well worth taking the hour to read it if you have the time and easy access to a copy....more
Competent and sincere, I should have liked this more than I did. Boyers' verse is readable and genuine but it didn't jump off the page the way I wanteCompetent and sincere, I should have liked this more than I did. Boyers' verse is readable and genuine but it didn't jump off the page the way I wanted it to. Boyers does a really good job embodying varieous historical and literary figures as well as her own life and her serious emotional connection to the city. I wish I had more to say, but my overall impression of the book was that it was lovely without being particularly able to stick with me. That being said, you might get a lot more out of it and Boyers' skill is high enough that I think checking her work out is well worth doing to see if it resonates....more
A wide-ranging and enjoyable criticism, imaginative and fun and funny. I don't buy everything but it's well worht reading. I lost my more detailed revA wide-ranging and enjoyable criticism, imaginative and fun and funny. I don't buy everything but it's well worht reading. I lost my more detailed review....more
Browne's verse is ambitious, intense, musical, and dramatic (in the best possible senses). Redbone tells the story of a Black woman (implied to be BroBrowne's verse is ambitious, intense, musical, and dramatic (in the best possible senses). Redbone tells the story of a Black woman (implied to be Browne's mother). She is a force but not immune to pain, beautiful and theatrical and her tumultuous relationship to Bam is believable and honest without romanticizing the tumult itself. Browne experiments with a wide variety of forms using spacing and the page to produce powerful emotional resonances and rhythms as in "The Cycle" and "Bam Behind Bars After Beating a Man with a Baseball Bat" and "This".
My favorite poem is probably "This" which closes the collection with a beautiful fullness and theatricality, capping off the effect of the collection as shot through with orality and narration and the rhythms of speech in a form that is impossible without the assistance of the written page as it makes brilliant use of spacing and line breaks in its visual functioning. Other favorite pieces include "My Mother, Redbone," "What We Lost in the Fire," "Redbone and the Rabbit Fur Coat," and "Muddy Waters." Highly recommended (especially right now and moving forward as people are working to better incorporate Black literature into their regular reading)....more
This was also finished about a year ago--a great read, as every entry in this series I've read has been. It's been too long for me to comment on indivThis was also finished about a year ago--a great read, as every entry in this series I've read has been. It's been too long for me to comment on individual stories though....more
A lovely collection; in some ways it felt like a first book (which it is), but that's alright! It made me want to read more of Cathy Park Hong's work.A lovely collection; in some ways it felt like a first book (which it is), but that's alright! It made me want to read more of Cathy Park Hong's work. The poems are emotive and complex and thoughtful and fit together well as individual peices and as a book. My favorite poems included "Ontology of Chang and Eng, The Original Siamese Twins," "All the Aphrodisiacs," "On Splitting," "Movement," "Translating Michin'yum", "To Collage a Beginning" and "Wing" (as perhaps is clear, I liked the middle section of the book best, though it was all good).
The poems are personal, historical, and formal, like how "All the Aphrodisiacs" opens
blowfish arranged on a saucer. Russian roulette. angelic slivers.
ginseng. cut antlers alloted in bags dogs on a spit, a Dutch girl
winking holds a bowl of shellfish.
whit cloth, drunkennes. a different language leaks out-- the idea of throat, an orifice, a cord--
you say it turns you on when I speak Korean.
This lead-up makes the later invocation of "han-gul: the language first used by female entertainers, poets, prostitutes" feel like a natural continuation of the imbrication of her life and the history of both anti-Asian racism in the states and of Koreaa, without ever letting go of the glittering ellipsis of the insistence on lower case, of the refusal to explain how these things are related, of the sudden, sharp appearance of a couplet as the fourth verse paragragh when most of them are single lines. This or "On Splitting" is probably my favorite poem and they are both indicative of the very best attributes of collection in much the same way that this exceprt works--far from the only poem that does this work. She is not interested in writing pain for those of us who cannot share it, instead taking full advantage of poetry as a reflective and even impersonal mode to speak to the intimate, the personal, and the systemic limitations that the person runs up against--as well as the possibility of joy and pleasure. I look forward to reading more!...more
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